A political outsider thinks that he would make the perfect Missouri governor. Mike Hamra is running for the Democratic nomination for governor in the August primary election. The Springfield-based fast-food CEO thinks that his business acumen makes him the ideal match to be chief executive of the state’s government.
“We need a governor that knows how to bring people together even where there might be challenges and even where there might be disagreements, but knows how to move things forward, knows how to ensure that the state will progress forward for a great future,” he told Missourinet.
Hamra owns a family business that operates Wendy’s and Panera Bread restaurants in parts of Missouri and in other states.
He said that, like his family-owned business, the state’s chief executive invests in its people.
“Providing our employees the opportunity to own their own home so they can build wealth for their family, supporting them if they want to go back to school and reimbursing them in tuition and then we even pay our high school and college age employees to do their homework in our stores and then we compensate them for good grades,” said Hamra.
A day one priority for him is crafting a ballot initiative to restore a woman’s right to an abortion. Hamra said that he’s going to be a governor who maintains those rights for women in this state.
“It’s not just good for women in the state of Missouri,” he said. “It’s good for our economy. I talked to parents and grandparents everyday who tell me the same thing that they are concerned and know that their kids and their grandkids aren’t interested in working, living, and raising a family in the state because of that restriction. They don’t want politicians in Jefferson City telling them what to do.”
There is currently an attempt to overturn the state’s near-total abortion restriction that’s planned for the November ballot. State lawmakers also passed a bill this year that would defund Planned Parenthood, despite the state not allowing most abortions, but it could be challenged by the Missouri Supreme Court, which already rejected similar attempts.
He said that people are interested in something different, which is why he’s banking on his lack of name recognition compared to others in this race. Hamra sees that as a good thing considering the experience he’s gained running his family-owned business for the past twenty-plus years.
“I can bring people together. I can get them aligned and I can, even where there might be challenges to solve problems, that’s how I built the business over the last 22 years,” he explained. “It’s one of the reasons we have one of the lowest turnovers and we’ve done so well because it’s about investing back in people and then also working with people to move things forward.”
Other Democrats running in the August primary election include Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, Eric Morrison, Sheryl Gladney, and Hollis Laster.
On the Republican side is Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, Jeremy Gundel, Robert Olson, Darrell McClanahan III, Chris Wright, Darren Grant, and Amber Thomsen.
Bill Slantz of St. Charles is running on the Libertarian ticket.
The primary election is August 6.
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